Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1887-06-25
an OUTSIDE VIEW.

The Portland NeUS, which is always so
solid on our local question, thus handles
the Utah Statehood bluff with an intelli
gence that is pleasing to note:
"a call has been issued for a Constitu-
tional Convention, to present Utah for
sovereignty in the Sublime Republic.
This effort is wise and patriotic, and the men
of wisdom and patriotism throughout the
Territory, regardless of political affiliations,
will join in it heart and soul.
The foregoing is from the Ogden
Herald, one of the most influential Nor
mon newspapers published in Utah. Be-
meath its apparently fair exterior is hid
den a design, the fulflment of which
means a complete check to the course Of
Americanism in Utah, for which the
loyal 6entiles have been laboring for
years. Statehood for Utah means death
to American loyalty within its limits. As
long as the Territory is under Congress
sional supervision, the Governor, with
his wholesome absolute veto power, as
well as the Supreme Court Justices, APP
pointed by the President, there is some
opportunity for impartial justice. But
with Mormon Governor, elected by the
Mormons, to give free rein to the vagar-
les Of a Mormon Legislature, and polyg-
amists in practice or in theory on the Su-
preme Court bench, there will be little
room for Gentiles or apostates in the
State of Utah, or Deseret, or whatever
its name may be.
1t is easy enough to talk about consti-
tuional inhibitions against polygamy.
When once the powers of State sover-
eighty are conferred, with Mormon public
opinion as it is, there will be no difficulty
in nullifying any such provisions. All the
anti-polygamy legislation of past years,
the appeals OF the Gentiles to the SYM
pathies of the Nation, the judicial inter
pretations Of the courts, the labors of the
social, political and religious missionaries
to awaken the dogged conscience of the
priest-ridden Territory-all these and
more will be wasted.
Statehood, in short, is the most COM
plete obstacle to the spread of liberalism
in that portion of the inter-mountain re-
gion. 1t Is the one project that the
Latter-day Saints have never allowed to
slumber In the realization of this hope,
all the measures of reform already
achieved will 60 for naught. The
specious cry Of "home rule" is used to
induce the ill-informed to advocate
measure fraught with most serious conse-
quences. The defiance of National au-
thority which has has SO frequently been
used in the past will be more than re-
peated The Territorial Legislature has
not scrupled to pass laws In direct oppo
sition to acts OF Congress. Legislative
authority has been cantoned out to muni
cipal corporations, which, by their char
ters, have been endowed with almost
absolute and despotic powers. A glance
at the Territorial statutes of former years
will show the most unprecedented
means that have been employed to
further the welfare OF the dominant
sect, to increase its treasury and to
assist in bringing its proselytes
together from all over the world. The
revival OF ecclesiastcism alone was not
sufficient. The celebrated statute of 1854,
which remained in force nearly twenty
years, enacted that "no report, decision
or doing of any court shall be read,
argued or adopted as precedent in any
other trial" On all questions of law,
the construction of written instruments,
the principles of evidence each petty
court with or without a Mormon jury,
was to be an absolute authority, law to
itself. All legal precedents were sum-
marily overthrown. The wisdom and
experience of ages were contemptaously
ignored. All the lessons of the past were
TO be discarded. A new order OF things
was to be established in conformity with |
inspired" revelations in this latest dis |
pensation in the fullness of time.
Similar legislative vagaries Of which
the inhabitants of Utah have already had |
a foretaste, might be multiplied. To
what extent an untrammeled legislature |
OF sovereign State might 60, it is i'm
possible to predict"